Medical and Pharmaceutical Industry English Courses in Vienna
The demand for English speakers in Vienna’s medical and pharmaceutical industries continues to grow. Although the English language is widely taught and spoken in Austria, medical English features specialist terminology that differs greatly from general English.
Proficiency in medical English, therefore, is highly advantageous for professionals working in healthcare settings and the pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, customised medical English courses in Vienna can help to further your career at home and abroad.
In the pharmaceutical and medical industry products, treatments, illnesses and conditions tend to get abbreviated from Greek or Latin into something memorable – and pronounceable! Our medical English courses in Vienna will enable you to communicate confidently and effectively in every setting.
Our native English speakers have experience working with students from pharmaceutical and medical backgrounds. We will show you how abbreviations are formed from the root word, so if you hear colleagues using an expression you’re not familiar with, there’s every chance you’ll be able to work it out by yourself.
The medical English courses we offer in Vienna are geared towards your specific needs but are also structured to cover industry-specific and cross-sector terminology as well. Using a variety of media, our intensive medical English courses cover:
- Understanding medical research papers
- Communicating in meetings and teleconferencing
- Consulting with patients
- Instructions for drug delivery and development
- Presenting information in formal and informal settings
- Handling telephone conversations
- Clinical language (abbreviated conditions, products etc.)
- Clinical testing and findings
- Drug safety
- Socialising and networking
- E-mail, letter and report writing
- Cross-cultural awareness
Why Learn Medical English in Vienna?
Regardless of whether you’re working in an English-speaking country or with foreign patients in Vienna, a high level of medical English enables you to deliver the best possible treatment and perform under pressure when speaking English.
According to official population statistics, there are 805,039 foreign nationals living in Vienna. That’s a massive 31.5% of the city. Of the thousands of foreign nationals living in Vienna, 11,529 are British, 101,597 are from Serbia, 76,025 from Turkey, and 55,267 from Poland. That means a good percentage of foreign nationals speak English as their first or second language.
Given healthcare professionals in Vienna are responsible for communicating with foreign patients face-to-face or over the telephone, the role of medical English cannot be overstated. There will be a time when healthcare professionals in Vienna will need to rely on English to communicate.
Doctors and nurses that can understand their patient’s questions and concerns are well placed to make them feel at ease and mitigate their fears. This is why a growing number of medical professionals in Vienna that can speak medical English are in high demand.
Both the British and the US embassy keep a list of medical companies and practitioners that have English speaking staff.
Considering the obvious advantages of understanding English, it’s easy to see the benefits of taking a medical English course in Vienna. It may not come as a surprise that a growing number of educational institutions are offering intensive medical programs to healthcare professionals in Vienna.
However, that does not mean that every medical English course will satisfy the needs of aspiring medical professionals. Many of these courses are generalised and the learning process is slow.
English 4 Professionals deliver specialised medical English courses that are customised to meet the specific needs of the individual. You are assigned a private teacher that speaks native English and has years of experience working with professionals in the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
We recognise that students get the most benefit from focusing on highly targeted content that they encounter day to day. The classes cover a variety of situations including patient interactions, official medical terminology, clinical language and reading documentation, but we can work on specific case studies and situations you have experienced as well.
Our medical English courses in Vienna use a variety of mediums including videos, interviews, audio, interactive role-play, hospital charts, academic articles and medical textbooks. With English 4 Professionals, it is the medical professionals that are given a thorough examination!
What is Medical English?
The medical and pharmaceutical industry is highly interactive and healthcare professionals rely on effective communication. Medical professionals need to be able to speak English with patients, co-workers, and the public. Even doctors, nurses and researchers in Vienna require strong fluency in English.
Medical professionals are quite rightly considered to be highly educated individuals – which is needed to earn trust and faith from your patients. If you do not have mastery in medical English, you will not be able to communicate effectively with your patients – and that could damage your relationship and your reputation.
Medical English is not the same as general English. The medical and pharmaceutical industry has a language of its own. Your English-speaking patients will not understand official terminology and it would be naive to expect them to.
Understanding medical English means you are better prepared to translate conditions, illnesses, medication, procedures and other medical terminology in general English. Medical English courses in Vienna enable you to extract technical and academic terminology and present it in everyday language.
If you are giving a presentation, sending an email, or conducting medical research for a pharmaceutical company, you will also need to write effectively in English.
An issue some Austrians find when learning medical English is the use of silent letters. You might get away with mispronouncing words to colleagues (they will laugh), but if you’re speaking or writing to a patient, it will make you look unprofessional.
Medical English also uses a wide variety of slang, acronyms, colloquialisms that those outside the profession find incomprehensible. Moreover, these idiosyncrasies exist in highly-charged interactions from the emergency room to the cafeteria.
Medical English in the Pharmaceutical Industry
The pharmaceutical industry performs research and development all over the world. It is common practice for projects to switch between several countries; the research and development are performed in one country then outsourced to another for further testing manufactured in a third country and offered to patients in a fourth. European countries get most of their medicines from Great Britain, for example.
As a consequence, medical English is the dominant language spoken in pharmaceutical environments.
Moreover, pharmaceutical companies are under increasing pressure to deliver effective treatments on a global scale. The Covid-19 vaccinations are a recent example of how polarised the industry is in dividing public opinion. There is a growing distrust of “Big Pharma” among the general population.
A growing number of foreign doctors are steering away from conventional medicines and prescribing alternative medicines. Two-thirds of the medical profession do not trust the information on pharmaceutical websites.
Language barriers are not helping pharmaceutical companies to bridge the gap of distrust through effective communication. And given most of the research is undertaken and delivered in English, pharmaceutical professionals with a high level of proficiency in English have a significant role to play.
For example, standard protocols involve developing products in multi-lingual laboratories and collaborating with international partners to maximise efficiency. These products are dispatched to multiple countries – the majority of which only speak English as a second language.
Bear in mind that the pharmaceutical industry is a knowledge-driven domain that largely divides opinion. There is a requirement for highly skilled employees that can communicate with a wide variety of individuals from all over the world.
To compete in the pharmaceutical industry, it is necessary to communicate in “international English”. However, to communicate effectively to people at all levels, you need to have an excellent grasp of medical English first. If you do not understand medical English, you cannot talk about the benefits of pharmaceutical treatments in a convincing or effective way.
How you spell with colleagues will differ from how you communicate with physicians, manufacturers, suppliers and distributors. To reassure your audience and answer their questions, a good level of English will be required.
Medical English Courses in Vienna Can Enhance Your Career
The healthcare industry has a dynamic working environment and multiple career opportunities. It is naturally fraught with the challenges and opportunities you would expect from any multi-billion euro industry.
Healthcare professionals are not only required in hospitals, clinics and research facilities. Specialists can find jobs in marketing, legal firms, government, advisory boards and regulators. Subsequently, key personnel with the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry rely on a common language: medical English.
The ability to understand medical English to a proficient level also helps to manoeuvre into lucrative positions. An article published in the Financial Post reveals that bi-lingual and multi-lingual workers in any industry typically earn between 5-20% more than their monolingual peers.
The objective of a medical English course in Vienna is to be able to effectively pass information to fellow professionals communicate your thoughts with colleagues and use empathetic words to patients when required.
The medical English courses we offer at English 4 Professionals are designed to enhance your performance in English speaking environments. Whether you work with non-German speaking colleagues in Vienna or overseas in English speaking countries, learning medical English with native English tutors in Vienna can help leverage your career and take you in any direction you want to go.
Native English Tutors in Vienna
The medical English courses we offer in Vienna are conducted by native English tutors that have years of experience working with medical professionals. Our classes are designed specifically for professionals and customised to meet your precise needs.
We are well aware that even though many of our students can speak fluent conversational English in a traditional setting, understanding medical English in a professional setting can be more challenging. And people naturally find that frustrating.
No matter what level of competency you have in English, our medical English courses in Vienna will fast-track your efficiency and help you to feel more confident in a professional environment. The initial objective will be to concentrate on your daily exposure to medical English to give you the tools and the confidence to take your learning to the next level.
Our ultimate objective is to prepare you for a career in the medical and pharmaceutical industry. Over the course of your professional experience, you will be required to speak to personnel of all levels, in a variety of ways, using a range of specific language and terminology.
Medical English is a highly specialised subject and is best delivered by native English tutors with experience of working with Austrian nationals in Vienna. If you already work in the medical or pharmaceutical industry or plan to in the future, a medical English course in Vienna lays the foundational pathway to a promising and lucrative career.
For many years, our native English tutors have worked with doctors, nurses, chemists, technicians, researchers, writers and various representatives of the pharmaceutical industry that are responsible for the marketing and educational side of the latest treatments.
In addition, our native English tutors develop a strong relationship with our students so that we are well placed to understand your needs, strengths and weaknesses. This gives us the ability to structure each class to meet your needs.
We are also flexible in our approach so feel free to bring a document or real-life scenario you have experienced to the class. We can work through relevant situations with you to develop real-life competencies.
Learn Medical English in Vienna
With a growing need for Viennese medical professionals that have a high level of competency in English, English 4 Professionals have designed a tailor-made approach that helps out students learn medical English in Vienna to a high standard – quickly!
Our native English tutors are British, but if you plan to work in America, we can also explain the differences between British English and American English that you may experience in the medical profession.
The main objective is to improve your spoken, written, reading and listening skills. No matter whether you are reading a scientific research paper or speaking with a patient, you will be exposed to a wide range of medical terminology – and not just the standard medical vocabulary you find in standard dictionaries.
If you’re looking for a medical English language course in Vienna that prepares you for a successful career in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, contact English 4 Professionals today.
